http://www.china-defense-mashup.com/pla-admiral-china-can-destroy-zumwalt-class-destroyer-by-fishing-boats.html
2012-05-03 (China Military News cited from washingtontimes.com and by Miles Yu) -- The Navy’s next-generation warship, the 15,000-ton Zumwalt-class destroyer, is no good and can be destroyed by Chinese fishing boats armed with explosives, according to a leading Chinese military commentator, People’s Liberation Army Rear Adm. Zhang Zhaozhong.
Adm. Zhang made the remarks April 30 during a nationwide broadcast of “Defense Review Weekly,” a program on state-run China Central TV. The admiral has been the station’s chief military commentator since 1998.
Ultimately, the destroyers survived several Washington budget cuts. Three of them are under construction at the Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine; the lead ship, USS Elmo Zumwalt DDG-1000, named for former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., is scheduled to be completed a year from now.
The new destroyer will play a significant role in what the Navy calls its “mace weapons” that are part of the new American military strategy in the Asia-Pacific, especially China.
The strategy will focus on land-attack capabilities in littoral battles. It will use some of the most-advanced technologies and weapons innovations, including a revolutionary stealth design that reduces radar and sonar signatures to the lowest level of any destroyers in the world.
It includes the Advanced Gun System featuring a high-tech electronic rail gun that is battery powered using electromagnetic pulse, and a Peripheral Vertical Launch System that will significantly reduce the damage of a missile battery explosion.
China pays close attention to Navy weapons development as Beijing regards American naval power as the most significant and most tangible military threat to its regional and global ambitions.
The real Beauty is Design and on board weapons...
ReplyDeleteDesign:
"DDG 1000 will have a 'tumblehome' hull form, i.e. a design in which hull slopes inward from above the waterline. This will significantly reduce the radar cross section since such a slope returns a much less defined radar image rather than a more hard-angled hull form"
Weapons :
DDG 1000 will have a sensor and weapons suite optimised for littoral warfare and for network-centric warfare, It will be equipped with a fully automated weapon handling and storage system and a family of advanced munitions and propelling charges, including the GPS-guided long-range land attack projectile (LRLAP). Up to 900 rounds of LRAP ammunition will be carried.
Source : DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class - Multimission Destroyer - Naval Technology
http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/dd21/
The primary function of US Navy Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers in future plans for Asia Pacific regional strategy will be to counter the anti-access/area-denial capabilities of China..
But Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong of the PLA Navy during an interview with national broadcaster China Central Television -"It will be finished then. The Zumwalt is no good!" he said. "The ship is not invincible from the Chinese point of view. "I can send several dozen small fishing boats loaded with explosives, floating and wobbling in the water, toward the Zumwalt, place the explosives onto its hull [and blow many holes in the hull]"